What do you mean by “intent to keep long term regardless?”? I’d say we ONLY purchase a residence with the intention to live in it long term. A rental/investment property is a whole other beast. Which are you after? [an accidental rental, where you own, live in it, move out, and then rent it, is just that - an accident]
I agree with ysette9. For me, it’s worked well to have a clear path before flailing or falling into albatross assets, like a house. This is a far cry from “churning credit cards” and finagling some kind of LLC to do school and a house purchase (???) - don’t tell me, I don’t want to know. This sounds like my FIl, who makes everything a thousand times more complicated than it has to be...thinking he’s doing something sophisticated. With love, I’ll say this man can analyze the “value” of something 92 different ways, recalculating interest rates and robbing Peter to pay Paul. If he’d just SAVED his money instead of spending all his energy trying to work the system, he’d be a wealthy man. This is a guy who made hundreds of thousands a year - base salary- and then gets a loan for a lawnmower in retirement. He refi’ed his house to roll an auto loan into the mortgage, “saving” $1 on the payment. He is super-smart, but not about finances. K.I.S.S Don’t be this way!
The biggest advantages of renting are: you control your costs, and you can easily walk away at the end of a lease. You write a check for $X amount every month. The landlord absorbs costs of vacancy, the new hvac that blew up, the cute kitchen that became dated, special assessment from the city, lawn care, failing appliances, pee from the cat that wasn’t supposed to be there (ewe), property management costs, etc.
If you’re putting down roots, it’s fine to buy. Property is an illiquid asset - It costs a lot to keep (1-2% of price on maintenance on *average), it costs a lot to sell (realtor commission + closing costs etc.). *You can have big cost outlays...roof, hvac, etc.
A few thoughts:
1. Military base usually means turnover in the housing market. This can depress prices and is more competition - good when you buy, bad when you sell.
2. Yes, interest rates are low and should stay historically low for the time being...so no rush there.
3. One big repair, one big market drop - due to virus, oil, the Fed sneezes - and your interest rate is irrelevant. The question becomes do you have the funds on hand to do the repair?
3a. Similarly, can you absorb a real estate market drop? If you’re sitting tight, it won’t matter except on paper.
4. Again, a rental property does not always equal what suits as a personal residence...because what renters are going to do to it is different.
5. Amenities is not a great reason to buy, imho. Look for small, privately owned rentals and be patient.
The tone in your post sounds very undirected to me, meaning it comes across as you feel like you should be doing something...with a vague sense of maybe to own a home again, but maybe it can be a rental later if you change your mind...and the amenities don’t quite suit. In that scenario, I would absolutely keep renting. Rent until you KNOW what your aiming at.
If you want an investment vehicle, the stock market seems to be discounted of late ;-)
